DESCRIPTION (Applicant's Description) The Center for Epidemiology and Policy, within the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, proposes a symposium to advance the use of epidemiologic evidence in making health policy decisions. The process of developing public health policy, which can occur in a number of ways, generally depends upon the policy arena, such as in regulatory action, infectious disease control or health care services evaluation. The incorporation of epidemiologic evidence into this process has not always been successful. While most epidemiologist would agree that epidemiology is the foundation of public health practice, there are some cogent issues surrounding the use of epidemiologic data in formulating health policy. Some of these issues include: differences between research goals and policy goals; translation of epidemiologic findings into health policy terms; and the role of epidemiologist in the policy development process. The goals of this symposium are: to examine and address the barriers in using epidemiologic information for health policy decisions; to develop possible solutions to the problems in translating epidemiologic evidence into sound policy; and to better define a research agenda for epidemiology and public health policy. The symposium will systematically address the relevant issues through work groups and invited presentations. Six multi-disciplinary work group of 10 invited experts will spend two days analyzing six case studies. The purpose of these sessions is to instill some principles on the use of epidemiologic evidence in policy development. The results will be presented on the third day of the symposium in an open general session, which will also include speakers invited to present papers on specific topics. A planning committee has developed the symposium agenda and identified possible work group members and presenters. Anticipated registrants for the general s e ssion include policy-makers, epidemiologist, public health officers, legislators, industry representatives, public health advocates, and students.